Is Super Bowl Still The Kickoff To The Chicago House-Buying Season?
February 8th, 2010 categories: Chicago Real Estate News
Here are some interesting spending stats about America’s favorite football game, the Super Bowl:
1. Nielsen Research reported that nine out of 10 U.S. households planned to watch this year’s clash between the Colts and Saints at their own homes or at a friend’s instead of at a bar or restaurant.
2. Only 5 percent of consumers said they expect to spend more on food and beverages for the Super Bowl this year than last.
These two numbers suggest one thing: Consumers are still being frugal with their money. They’re still not spending freely. And who can blame them? Many of them are still worried about losing their jobs.
What does all this mean for the Chicago residential real estate market? Well, if consumers are as interested in saving money as they say they are, they’ll find that now is a terrific time to buy a condominium or single-family home in Chicago.
The median sales price of homes in even the top city neighborhoods, places like Lakeview, Lincoln Park, Lincoln Square and Wicker Park, is down significantly from just one year ago. The Illinois Association of REALTORS® reported that the year-end median price for a Chicago home in 2009 stood at $225,000. That’s down a solid 22.4 percent from 2008, when the year-end median price stood at $290,000.
Buyers have traditionally returned in droves to the residential real estate market after the Super Bowl. It’s as if the big game marks the unofficial end of the winter-holiday season. What about this year, though? This is still an unusual market, what with the national unemployment rate still uncomfortably high. Will Chicago buyers start looking in earnest for new townhomes, condominiums or single-family homes now that the game is over?
I think they will. It’s just too good of a time to buy. If the buyers do come out, they’ll find some terrific bargains. And if we’re to believe the statisticians at Nielsen, that should be enough to provide yet another boost to our local housing market’s young recovery.
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